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am I loosing the battle against brown algae?

ceg4048 said:
Hi Martin,
Can you tweak the gas a little more, or are you at the limit for fish?
Cut out the damaged sections and discard.

Cheers,
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The fish are doing fine so far...I will tweak the gas a bit more, turn it on a bit earlier too and cut away what needs to be cut away (brown algae leaves)...lets see...keeping up hope.

Isn't it strange that the crypts don't show any sign of brown algae what so ever?
 
No, I don't find this strange at all. Is it strange that Usain Bolt can run 200 meters in under 20 seconds, yet Martin in China, if placed on the same track, probably requires 30 seconds (with the wind) to complete that distance?

Species have different abilities based on their evolutionary path, and individual specimens also have different abilities. The crypts have adapted to the CO2 and lighting conditions. In nature, crypts are often found submersed, but HC is normally found only semi-flooded. HC therefore does not need to be as efficient because the leaves above the water can get CO2 anytime.

Cheers,
 
Some recent findings from me.
It looks like this is a tank with Amazonia substrate.
If so you will need to use pretty good amount of active carbon in the filter. Why? Because after year of experiments I have determined that Amazonia releases some kind of compound (likely organic in nature) that inhibits CO2 absorption by the plants. That's why every start with Amazonia (manufactured after 2012) have to include good amount of active carbon. The carbon appears to remove what ever inhibits the CO2 absorption and plants can actually feed.
The active carbon will have to be replaced approximately every 30 days very likely forever or for as long as you use Amazonia.
Also after start up water changes have to be constant 50% once every other day for no less than a month.
And of course push the CO2 levels until the checker gets yellow. It is preferable if you do not turn off the CO2 ever so the plants will have enough CO2 as soon as the lights come on.

IMPORTANT! Under the circumstances mentioned above do not use anything to raise the KH. It will be in your best interest to keep the KH as low as possible. I tried to boost the KH a bit above 0 and the effects were all negative, because with Amazonia this days it seem almost impossible to inject enough CO2. So raising the KH will only make matters worse.

I have initiated a full restart on my tank with Amazonia about a month ago following what I just suggested and it looks perfect for the lack of a better word.
Some plants still do not propagate as I want them so I removed them and left all other plants that can grow well in this conditions. HC is magnificent.
 
Micranthemum Sp Monte Carlo is a light demanding plant guys. If you reduce the light this plant will looks very bad.

We do grow this plant in awesome speed and perfect condition. But make sure this is in an open space and get enough light. Not as picky to CO2 as HC, but for light it is.

You may have the algae on the carpet becasue the plant is strugling. And the soil is still not covered with plants.
Otherwise there are nice alternatives if you stick with the lowering light strategy like marsilea etc 🙂
 
@ aquadream; Thanks for your help. My filters are already packed with a good amount of active carbon, also the substrate is already a couple of months old and I use Amazonia in my other tanks with no problem at all.

@ Victor; I use to have high light on Micranthemum Sp Monte Carlo, but this didn't made it look any better than it does at the moment and I have some other plants which also suffer from the same symptoms (brown algae and not growing)...have said that, if it fails with more CO2 I am willing to give a some more light and see what will happen (just scared that it will only increase the growth of brown algae or even other types of algae)...if that also would not work for me I have no trouble in rescaping (as the rocks don't look nice anymore) with the use of easier plants like crypts.

The thing is that I just want to know how to get it perfect, cause if I'm not able to get it right now, I won't be able to get it right ever.....
 
viktorlantos said:
Also have your algae crew there in your tank. Siamese, plenty of shrimps.
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Yes...loads of shrimp (I can catch them here in a nearby stream) Otos and Siamese[DOUBLEPOST=1396951825][/DOUBLEPOST]
ceg4048 said:
Is it strange that Usain Bolt can run 200 meters in under 20 seconds, yet Martin in China, if placed on the same track, probably requires 30 seconds (with the wind) to complete that distance?
Click to expand...

What makes you I couldn't out run Usian Bolt mate?.....Just put a spider behind me and I will run faster than a speeding bullet.😱
 
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Martin in China said:
Yes...loads of shrimp (I can catch them here in a nearby stream) Otos and Siamese[DOUBLEPOST=1396951825][/DOUBLEPOST]

What makes you I couldn't out run Usian Bolt mate?.....Just put a spider behind me and I will run faster than a speeding bullet.😱
Click to expand...


I'm with you on the spider's.
Approx twenty year's ago, I was wading through some chest high weed's just before daylight, to access the bank's of my favorite pond.
After arriving at the edge of the pond and making the first cast of the morning,I felt something on my arm and without giving it a thought ,brushed away whatever it was. then I felt something on the back of my neck, and arm as well.
I looked down to see that I was nearly covered from waste to chest with large black and yellow garden spider's that apparently had strung web's across the weed's I had just tromped through.
I am not ashamed to say I screamed like a school girl ,tossed my rod's and tackle box as far as I could back over the weed's and scooped em up on a dead run while at the same time,,trying to swat away the remaing spider's still crawling about on my person.
I don't do spider's very well to this day, and very much resemble a swordsman waving my rod's out in front of me when wading through weed's whether I can see the critter's or not.
That single expierience I am certain, took ten year's off me.
 
Martin in China said:
Fish are fine now....but can't give it more gas (CO2)...I'm out of options....
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Change the substrate for another brand and start over. In my last aquascape with Amazonia I had the same problem and ended up poisoning half of my fish with CO2 to just keep the plants to look ok, but not near as good as I know them to be.
As dramatic as it may sound I called that scape "Rupture in me" because it got me in trouble that I had never experienced in 30 years of my hobby.

Now I am again with Amazonia, because I purchased last year a lot of it and have to use it some how. All looks fine, but there are constant CO2 deficiency signs in most plants, that never go away.
 
I tested (after WC) the TDS in my tanks...the 300ltr tank has 250 ppm...the 40ltr tank only 120 ppm...tap water here has 60 ppm. Could this be one of the reasons why CO2 dissolves so bad into the water? Does Amazonia resolves in a higher TDS?
Which substrate could I use next time?... Is plain gravel ok (maybe with some pond subtrate under it)?
 
Aquadream said:
Change the substrate for another brand and start over.
Click to expand...

I find it hard to believe that something as popular and widely used as Amazonia would be causing the issues you are experiencing. There are lots and lots of people on here who use this stuff and produce stunning scapes.
 
Andy D said:
I find it hard to believe that something as popular and widely used as Amazonia would be causing the issues you are experiencing. There are lots and lots of people on here who use this stuff and produce stunning scapes.
Click to expand...
Do you find it hard to believe that once any big company gets stable share of the market they also start downgrading their product quality for the sake of greater profit. So many companies went this way, like bloody all of them.
Check this tread out. I have published rock solid evidence for anyone with common sense to judge for them selves.

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/eco-complete-or-ada-soil.32572/page-2#post-346187

I have increased the CO2 in my tank to 4+ bps, 24/7. CO2 checker never gets away from yellow colour. CO2 deficiency signs are still there. The only thing that saves the day is me keeping 50% water changes every other day for as long as I have stamina to do it. After the first 30 days of recommended ADA maintenance the problems did not went away. The likelihood is that I will become like one of the ADA employees cleaning my tank every night to be able to keep it nice.
So my new hobby now is an aquascape tank cleaner.
 
Martin in China said:
Still the question for me is, which substrate to use?...more Japanese brand available here (same price as ADA brand though), I could even go for Akadama....
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Question is though Martin, what will you do if you change the substrate and encounter the same issues ? I'd be tempted to set up a couple of experiments with small containers using different substrates and the one you have in your main tank and keep all other params the same light water plants all from the same source and see what happens a rescape is a big job on a tank that size, I would want to be sure it is a substrate fault/issue first.
 
CO2 as high as I possibly can get it without killing fish, light period (of only 1 T5 hanging 13" above the tank) of 5.5hr a day, 2 filters, spraybars.... and still have brown algea, I even get some BGA (no sunlight is getting near that part of the tank)....
It's kinda frustrating
 
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